Here are two interesting stories from Paul Thurrotts Short Takes for week ending Feb 11th. I noticed he was down alot last week, I hope it didn't have anything to do with the earlier "Windows More secure than Linux - Yep!" story because I also noticed that the article has exited the page. Ahh could be me, but anyway on we go..

What? You Mean the Public Doesn't Approve of the Microsoft Settlement?

Here's a shocker: Apparently, most of the 30,000 public responses that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) received about its antitrust settlement with Microsoft were negative. As a result, both Microsoft and the DOJ have asked Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly for a 1-day hearing in which they can suggest small changes to the agreement. This hearing request appears to be an attempt to prevent the judge from throwing out the proposed settlement, but that's exactly what she should do. It's not as though we don't have another settlement proposal to consider.

Microsoft Comes Down Hard on Its Programmers

And speaking of problems in Redmond, Microsoft has put its Windows developers and testers through an intense security-training program that will probably affect Windows XP and the upcoming Windows .NET Server products in dramatic ways. Microsoft says that the effort is serious and will forever change the way the company codes products. Michael Howard, program manager for Microsoft's Secure Windows Initiative, says that Microsoft is asking program managers a question that should be music to any Windows user's ears: "Are 90 percent of your users using this feature? If not, then you better have a good reason for enabling that feature by default." Security code fixes for XP will ship in Service Pack 1 (SP1), which Microsoft has delayed. The initial version of .NET Server, now due in the second half of the year, will be more secure out of the box than it would have been previously.